PRO BASKETBALL

PRO BASKETBALL;Van Exel Receives 7-Game Suspension

By FRANK LITSKY

Published: April 11, 1996

The wrath of the National Basketball Association and his team descended yesterday on Nick Van Exel, hours after the Los Angeles Lakers' point guard shoved a referee during a game.

The league suspended him for the last seven games of the regular season and fined him $25,000, an N.B.A. record. He also drew an automatic $1,000 fine for ejection, and the suspension will cost him $161,000 of his $1.9 million annual salary.

Rod Thorn, the N.B.A.'s senior vice president of basketball operations, assessed the penalties.

"I think everyone understands that if this happens again," he said, "the penalty will be even more severe. I think we got Mr. Van Exel's attention."

Jerry West, the Lakers' general manager, left no doubt where the team stood.

"We agree with and support the league's decision 100 percent," West said. "I've dedicated 35 years, my entire adult life, to this game and this league, and I think it is imperative that the N.B.A. address the incredible number of incidents that are undermining the professionalism of this league. Personally, I am embarrassed and apologize to our fans."

West, once one of pro basketball's premier players, drew two technical fouls in his 14 years. Van Exel drew two within a minute late in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night's 98-91 loss to the Nuggets in Denver.

Van Exel apparently made a sarcastic remark to the referee Ron Garretson about a call. After a brief conversation during a timeout, Garretson called a technical foul on him. Van Exel argued more and, according to courtside observers, called Garretson a "little midget." Garretson called a second technical, which meant automatic ejection.

Van Exel began walking away. Then he returned, and with his forearm he shoved Garretson onto the scorer's table. Garretson is the son of Darryl Garretson, a longtime N.B.A. referee and now its supervisor of officials.

"Instinctively," Garretson said, "I started to do something that I think I quite possibly would regret and caught myself, and his players took him."

The N.B.A.'s previous record fine was $20,000, assessed less than a month ago against Dennis Rodman of the Chicago Bulls for head-butting the referee Ted Bernhardt during a game, then shouting obscenities and kicking over a water cooler. Rodman was also suspended for six games. The only suspensions longer than Van Exel's seven games were 26 games to Kermit Washington in 1977 for punching another player and 10 games to Vernon Maxwell last season for entering the stands and hitting a fan.

Van Exel is 24 years old, a third-year pro from Kenosha, Wis., and the University of Cincinnati. He averaged 13.6 and 16.9 points a game in his first two N.B.A. seasons, and he is averaging 14.9 points and 6.9 assists this season. His loss will hurt the Lakers because even though they have clinched a playoff berth, they are trying to hold off the Houston Rockets for home-court advantage in the first round.

"Nick is not a bad guy," said a member of the Lakers' organization who requested anonymity. "He's hot-tempered, very emotional, but he's never done anything like this before."

Like his Laker teammates, Magic Johnson was shocked.

"It's going to set us back," Johnson said. "You just don't do it. There's no excuse. There's no reason. Just when I thought we were smart, and then wham!"

Three weeks ago, when Cedric Ceballos of the Lakers took a four-day unexcused absence, Van Exel was most critical.

"He abandoned us at a time like this, at a time we have to stick together," Van Exel said then. "It's going to be hard."

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Lakers Trounce Wolves

MINNEAPOLIS, April 10 (AP) -- Sedale Threatt made sure the Los Angeles Lakers didn't need their suspended point guard, Nick Van Exel, tonight, filling in with 20 points in a 111-90 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Elden Campbell had 28 points, 1 off his season high, and Threatt added eight assists in only his second start of the season as the Lakers won for the seventh time in 10 games.

"We wanted to go out and win this for Nick," Threatt said. "We definitely miss him. He's a big key to this team, and the focus of the team is that we've just got to keep playing well and hold it until he gets back."

The Lakers, with the fourth-best record in the Western Conference, shot 57 percent, going 9 for 17 from 3-point range.

Threatt hit all four of his 3-pointers and shot 8 for 12 over all.

Photo: Nick Van Exel of Lakers being restrained by a team aide duringconfrontation with Referee Ron Garretson. (Associated Press)